Chapter 6: About our fake relationship
"Alexia! Alexia!"
Someone was calling her name. Someone dear to her. She slowly opened up her eyes.
"Alexia! You're awake! Are you hurt?!"
It was Iris. She was crying. It took a moment to realize her head was resting on her sister's lap.
She grinned up at her. "I'm fine, thank you for coming to find me."
"I'm glad! I'm so glad you're all right!"
She was so worried about me. She's always cared about me. Why did I resent her? "Thank you, dear sister."
"Alexia, what happened here?! There was a huge explosion and this entire area's been destroyed!"
Alexia lifted her head a bit and looked around. Sure enough, she and Iris were at the edge of a massive crater. The building she'd been in, and everything nearby had been vaporized. He deliberately saved me, she realized. Somehow, when he unleashed that spell, he made sure it didn't reach me.
"No, one man did this. He had a black sword and wore a mask. His name was Shadow." Her mind wasn't really focused, but she decided not to mention his other name.
"Shadow? Is he the one who kidnapped you?"
"No, that was Zenon."
"Zenon?! But he's a teacher at the academy! A respected swordsman! One of your marriage candidates! I considered him a friend! I talked to him just the other day! He was so worried about you."
"Yeah, he fooled everybody." Except me. "But it was him. He was part of a cult, the Cult of Diablos he called it."
"Diablos? From the fairy tale?"
Alexia nodded. "He was trying to be a twelfth knight of the round, whatever that is."
"Do you know if he was planning to ask for something from the kingdom? We never received a ransom demand."
"He didn't want a ransom; he wanted my blood."
"Your blood?"
"Yeah, there was a crazy doctor who kept taking my blood and talking about using it for power."
"A crazy doctor?"
"Yes, I think it had something to do with transforming people into monsters. There was a monster in the lab that was chained up next to me and he kept calling it a failed experiment."
"Uhm…"
"And I saw Zenon take some red pills that started turning him into a monster and made his magic run wild."
"Uh…"
"I also saw the crazy doctor give the monster an injection of a red liquid that made it grow to about twenty feet tall in less than a minute."
"Uh huh."
Alexia paused and noted the look on her sister's face. It made her chuckle.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I do!" Iris said quickly. "Some of it at least. I know the monster was real, I actually fought it. And if you say Zenon was your kidnapper, I accept that. As for the rest… ah, well, you have a head injury. It looks like it's already been healed, but still… You've also been through a lot. Your memories may be a little fuzzy."
"Everything I told you is the truth."
"Uh huh, let's get you home and have a doctor look at you, a sane one of course. Then you can get some rest. In the meantime, the knights will search this place and see if they can find any evidence. After that we can sort everything out."
She wanted to argue, but she was feeling tired. "Fine, let's go home, sister."
Iris picked her up in her arms and carried her away.
XXX
Two days later Alexia was on the roof of one of the academy buildings with Cid Kagenou. She'd sent him a message asking him to come and speak with her in private. This was their first meeting since her kidnapping. Facing him he looked the way he did most of the time, bored. The boy in front of her was the plain old Poochie who was nothing but flaws. Could he really be…
"So, did you want to talk to me about something?" Cid asked when the silence had dragged on a bit too long.
Alexia sighed. "That's the first thing you say to me, Poochie? Every single other person I've met today has fallen over themselves telling me how glad they are that I'm safe."
"Well, I thought it would be obvious that I'm happy you're okay."
"Really?"
"Sure, I mean if you weren't I'd probably be sitting in a cell right now waiting to be executed."
"Yeah, I heard about what happened to you. You spent five days being 'interrogated,' right?"
"That's right."
"And rather than 'interrogated' I'm guessing the more accurate word would be 'tortured.'"
"That's right."
Alexia reached into her purse and counted out five gold coins. "Then on behalf of the kingdom let me give you these in compensation." She walked over and handed them to him.
"This is new, you'd usually be tossing them all over the place."
"I've had time to rethink some things."
He nodded and put the coins in his pocket. Alexia waited a beat, but he didn't say anything or give any special reaction.
"I wound up being rescued by this really amazing swordsman named Shadow. He came out of nowhere and killed Zenon. I was knocked out and never got the chance to thank him."
"That so? Well, I'm sure he'd assume you were grateful."
She stood there and looked him over, searching for anything that was different or out of place.
"Something wrong?"
"Cid, are you…"
"Am I what?"
Are you Shadow? Are you the guy with that insane power who kicked Zenon's ass without even trying? Are you, my hero?
She believed it but couldn't be completely sure. Iris was dubious of some of the things Alexia had told her, but Alexia knew that everything she remembered up until Shadow used his Iamtomik power had happened. The insane doctor, the monster, the blood, Zenon's crazy talk about cults and rounds, and Shadow's unbelievable swordsmanship and magic. All of that was real and she had no doubts.
But the voice talking to her when she was barely conscious… that she wasn't quite certain of. How could she come right out and ask Cid, her one and only friend and partner in crime, if he was the person who'd rescued her? If it really was him, wouldn't he tell her on his own? Wouldn't he want her to know? On the other hand, if he wasn't Shadow wouldn't she come off as a complete idiot to confuse this lazy bum for the greatest swordsman in the world?
No way am I going to make myself look like a fool in front of Poochie.
"Are you really, okay? I mean you were tortured for five days. Do you need medical attention?"
"Oh that? Don't worry about it. As soon as you were rescued the academy gave me free healing. See," he showed off his hands. "My fingernails grew back and everything."
Alexia made a mental note to never let herself be tortured.
"Well, anyway, there are a couple things I want to talk to you about. First off, even if it's a little late I wanted to thank you for saying you liked my sword style. I've recently come to like it myself so thank you."
He smiled and gave her a nod. "Sure, glad to hear it."
"Though obviously your opinion didn't have any effect on my change of heart."
"You just had to add that last part, didn't you?"
Alexia grinned. Whether or not he was Shadow, this was the Cid she liked. The honest sarcastic jerk who would tell her what he thought regardless of whether or not she was royalty.
"Uhm, there's one more thing. We began our fake relationship to help me get away from Zenon. Well, he's gone now, so that problem's been solved. But… well… there are other guys interested in me, and you know it'd be such a pain to deal with them all. It's not like I really care, but you know, if you wanted to continue this fake relationship of ours a little longer. Well… I wouldn't hate the idea. S… So, want to keep dating?"
He looked at her in surprise and gave her a genuine smile.
Then flipped her the double bird. "No thanks. I've had enough of being led around by a wicked princess. I'm a busy guy you know?"
With that he started walking away.
As he did so, Alexia drew out her sword. "Hey, Cid?"
"What?"
"THAT QUESTION WAS RHETORICAL YOU STUPID MUT!"
"Aaaarghh!"
XXX
Because Alexia was a very gentle and kindhearted princess, she only beat Poochie with the flat of her sword and stomped on his balls no more than four or five times. Six tops. Once they mutually agreed to continue their fake relationship the compassionate and most ladylike princess hauled his sorry ass to the infirmary.